Football Gods Punish Puny Mortals in Fox Sports Campaign

Gridiron Greats Lash Out at Saturday Sluggards

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As it prepares to kick off its fourth straight year of Saturday college football coverage, Fox Sports is calling on a triumvirate of higher powers to promote its broadcast slate.

Beginning Monday, Fox will roll out its new "Honor Thy Saturday" campaign, a $10 million initiative that includes buys on national cable networks and a number of high-profile digital outlets. At the heart of the promotional effort is a series of 30-second spots from Pereira & O'Dell featuring the Football Gods, a fearsome threesome of former gridiron greats Eric Dickerson, William "The Refrigerator" Perry and Brian Bosworth.

Perched at the peak of a smashmouth Mount Olympus, the three legends render judgment upon hapless fans who fail to observe the college football Sabbath, as it were. The wrath of the Gods is a sight to behold: A suburban dad who erroneously informs his pals at a backyard kids' party that "the game's not on yet" is transformed into a piñata -- whereupon he is immediately set upon by a husky lad wielding a baseball bat. In another spot, a bewildered mortal who accidentally blows off football to help his wife arrange a yard sale is turned into one of those disconcerting cymbal-clicking stuffed monkeys, while a third spot will feature a football-denying dilettante in a hotel pool who feels the burn (literally) after the deities have had their way with him.

The spots are being positioned as a jocular reminder that the Fox broadcast net and its cable sports channel FS1 carry a 14-week lineup of Saturday Pac-12, Big 12 and Conference USA games -- a fact that may be lost on viewers who've grown accustomed to flipping between ABC, CBS, ESPN, NBC and various regional sports nets and conference-affiliated channels.